Ronnie Tjampitjinpa

biography

Ronnie Tjampitjinpa was born around 1943 at Tjiturrunya, west of Kintore Ranges in Western Australia. He was initiated into manhood at Winparku, near Lake Mackay.

After prolonged droughts in the 1950s, he and his family moved, first to Haasts Bluff, then to Papunya. Ronnie Tjampitjinpa commenced painting around 1975 after he observed the Papunya painting movement. Since moving to Walungurru, in the early 1980s he has emerged as one of Papunya Tula's major artists.

Pintupi artist Ronnie Tjampitjinpa was one of the youngest of the group of men who began painting at Papunya in 1971, which led to the emergence of the Western Desert art movement. A founder of the hugely influential Papunya Tula Artists, he became as one of their major painters in the early 1990s and continues to paint today. Tjampitjinpa's art is a strong representation of the characteristic Pintupi sytle: repetition of forms that are geometric, simple and bold, and pigments that are often restricted to a basic palette of black, red, yellow and white.

Tjampitjinpa is most recognised for his bold, graphic paintings that explore the Tingari ancestors and their travels over vast areas of the Western Desert region.

Celebrating the 40-year career of leading Aboriginal painter Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, the Art Gallery of New South Wales will host a solo exhibition with an overview of his works. The exhibition will be on view from April until November 2015.

Cf. For a similar composition by the artist in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, seeWatunuma (Flying Ant) Dreaming, 1991, in J. Ryan et al., Land Marks, Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 2006, p.65, (illus.).